Do you keep a journal? 

by Liz Flaherty

 

Do you keep a journal? Or write in a diary every day? Or, like my grandfather used to, just write things like “Rain again. 22 degrees” on a calendar you got free from the bank? I’ve never done it on a regular basis, because, I suppose, it requires self-discipline. This is not my long suit.

The best reason for keeping a journal isn’t discipline; it’s proof. Have you noticed that no matter what the event, the words 'well documented' start flying around. It happens at work, on 'reality' TV shows and infomercials, and in the news.

Personally, I can’t imagine writing down some of the stuff involved. I can see the entry now:

“Had a headache today and took an aspirin product at eight o’clock and Tylenol at noon. Head still hurt really bad so went to bed until husband woke me to ask where the remote was. Told him I didn’t know and didn’t care. Took one aspirin and one Tylenol because both bottles were empty. Went back to bed until kid asked what was for supper. Told him to ask his father. Wondered if I had a brain tumor. Got up at ten o’clock and cleaned up kitchen and did two loads of laundry. Stood at refrigerator door and ate a slice of cheese and the last piece of bologna. Made note to buy bologna and whatever kind of pain reliever was on sale and put note on fridge beside expired cereal coupon. Took two Advil I found in the bottom of my purse sharing space with three paper clips, a quarter, and six pennies. Headache mostly gone.”

It’s far better to use journal entries to prove things that are of real importance. Such as which day in December was the coldest. “See,” you can say, “it’s written right here that it was seven below on this date. I don’t care what the weather channel says. How would they know? They weren’t out here freezing their…er…parts off trying to get my car started so they wouldn’t be late to work three days in a row.”

Or how old something is. “Sure, the TV’s still under warranty, because here it says you were mad when I jammed up the garbage disposal and that I sent the check for the taxes and I remember that’s the day we bought the new TV because you wanted to know what that big check to the county was. You thought maybe I’d bought the courthouse and I said no, because it was too hard to heat.”

You can write down events that you would have remembered anyway, but reading the words, “Jock and Laura married in the yard. It was beautiful,” brings back my youngest son’s wedding in Technicolor memory. I remember Laura’s dress in detail, the way the little girls in attendance stripped the blooms from the snowball bush and showered her with petals, the way my husband mowed the yard three times in as many days so it would do justice to the bride. At the time of the wedding, I didn’t keep a journal on even a semi-regular basis, but I’m glad I recorded that day.

So if you have a son getting married or a granddaughter getting christened or if you’re just really ticked off at your significant other, maybe it’s time for you to keep a journal. If you’d like to start one, let me tell you how.

Make sure it’s bound so that it will lie flat. This means a three-ring binder or a coil-bound notebook with the Muppets on the cover will work just fine or you can buy an actual journal with a flowered cover off the clearance rack. Use a pen that writes nicely in whatever color you choose, but don’t spend much money on it because you’ll lose it three days into your journal-writing. Leave the journal somewhere conspicuous that you’re going to be every day, like beside your favorite chair or on the bedside table or the counter beside the coffeepot. Mine lies on the kitchen table and is often buried, but I can always find it when I need to prove something.

Sometimes in the stresses and busyness of everyday living, we lose ourselves. We are what other people need us to be or what we have convinced ourselves we must be. In a journal, we need only be ourselves, and reading old entries can remind us of who we are. And that we like who we are. That’s the best reason of all.

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